London –Proof that there is no fad that Hollywood doesn't believe it can turn into a blockbuster film has arrived after Sony Pictures Animation snapped up a film project based on emoji characters.
Sony triumphed in a three-studio auction to bring the widely used ideograms to the big screen. The deal, said to be worth seven figures, surprised some insiders since, unlike the recent Lego film, there are no underlying rights to buy.
The film website Deadline speculated that Sony was forced to act quickly to head off a rival emoji film pitch, with Warner Bros and Paramount interested in developing a similar project.
Developed in the late 1990s in Japan, emoji symbols are widely used across electronic communications – from social media, to text messages and email. Entire sentences are now constructed using what has been described as the world's first global language.
The Sony project will be co-written by Eric Siegel, a US sitcom producer, and Anthony Leondis, director of Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters and a soon-to-be-released DreamWorks animation, BOO: Bureau Of Otherworldly Operations.
The producers will develop the emoji film's characters from a wealth of symbols, with 93 individual yellow faces, 15 families of four, 10 happy couples and seven anthropomorphic cats available for use in Apple's emoji library. Emoji users speculated on social media whether the distinctive “smiling pile of poo” symbol might make an appearance - or end up being used as a shorthand review of the film itself.
Japanese-created fads have previously provided the source material for box office success. The Pokémon video games in 1998 spawned a feature film which grossed nearly $165m (£106m) worldwide..
This week Sony releases Pixels, starring Adam Sandler, which features popular video game characters coming to life. – Independent